63-year-old Rathinam, wife of late R Kulandaivelu (former member of AIADMK) was found dead at her residence in Besant Nagar in Chennai on Sunday night. The police are now on the lookout for her son 35-year-old son Praveen who is absconding since then.
It is said that the motive behind the murder was that Praveen wanted to sell the family’s ancestral property, but his mother objected to it.
63-year-old Rathinam had been living alone at her house on 6th Avenue, Besant Nagar, Chennai, since the demise of her husband a few years ago. R Kulandaivelu, a member of the AIADMK, was elected MP from Tiruchengode constituency from 1977 to 1980.
As per the preliminary investigation, police said that the victim Rathinam had made a call to her 43-year-old daughter Sudha, who is a doctor in Tirupur, before the murder alleging that her son was demanding a share in the property and wanted to kill her. However, before her daughter could tell her to take refuge in a relative’s house nearby, the phone call got disconnected.
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When the call ended abruptly, a worried Sudha alerted her relative who stayed at Thoraipakkam to call upon Rathinam. When the relative reached the house, he found it locked from the outside with bloodstains on the door. Thereafter, he along with neighbours soon alerted the Sashtri Nagar police.
When the police reached the spot, they found Rathinam’s body on the floor; her hands and legs tied up and with blood gushing out form a stab injury to the chest. They also found strangulation marks on her neck. Her body was then sent to Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem.
Police have issued a look-out circular against Praveen to all airports.
